Movie-license games to improve, says Sega

Movie-licensed games have invariably turned out to be piles of old tosh - with a few notable exceptions - but that's about to change according to Sega of America's VP of marketing, Scott Steiner.

Why are licensed games commonly such rushed disasters? Steiner explains: "Hollywood really can throw a grenade to game companies; they'd throw a license grenade over the wall and game companies would have six months to build a game and market it. No surprise the game might not have been the greatest."

But, discussing Sega's recent expanded partnership with Marvel, Steiner explains how things look set to improve.

"As publishers and the different movie studios are recognizing how important videogames are to the marketing of a film to the [target] demographic, movie studios realise that they can't trivialise the interactive space," Steiner told Next-Gen.biz.

"In 1991 or '92 the [movie] studios saw videogames as sort of chump change. They'd bounce perhaps a property six months before a game, basically when the movie was in the can, and publishers tried to crank it out with using an existing engine, threw a couple of artists on it, and shipped a 16-bit game," he goes on to explain.

"The whole industry, both industries, have coupled together and have evolved or advanced their craft to a point where both are taken extremely seriously and that just wasn'p the case two years ago."

More like GoldenEye 007-quality stunners then, please.

via cvg

Chronicles of Riddick! Need I say more?

Best movie-licensed game I've seen, no doubt.

Hope its true, would like to see a better Lord of the Rings game lol

I'll believe it when I see it. I have always had a strong dislike for movie franchise games due to being ripped off so many times.

Also, I don't see the point. I like to WATCH movies and I like to PLAY video games. But I don't like play what I want to watch. Also I don't want to watch something I'll just end up playing.

Confused yet?

I especially hate when movie video games follow THE SAME storyline as the movie lacking very little, if any new surprises or content.

Movie games are mostly geared towards parents of kids who don't know any better. They watch their favorite movies or shows on TV and then if they see the same characters on the front cover of a video game they instantly want it.

Its no wonder a lot of developers have just not tried too hard on movie games. They know the game will likely sell either way.

A recent example and relating to the PSP is TMNT. The PSP version is terrible. I actually much prefer the GBA version. TMNT was done better as a 2-D brawler on the GBA than the 3-D guided roof-hopping that seems to be a big part of the PSP version.

i actually bought the game (TMNT) and thought it would be mybest but after 15mins of dissapointment i was so appaled at the lack of creativity i got my 80 AUD refund and bought the 2 GTA games